to think I can get by without childcare in August because work is quiet?

[isitPeri1]

Every August, work slows down massively. It has always been this way. There is barely anything coming in, hardly any meetings or deadlines, and most of my team is off. My manager and her manager are both away for the whole of August, so it is very unlikely anything urgent will come up.

I have primary school-aged kids and I am thinking I might skip childcare this year. I usually only have about one to two hours of work a day in August, and some days there is literally nothing to do at all. Anything that does come up, I can usually fit around the kids early in the morning or after they have gone to bed. I have proper annual leave booked for September when they are back at school, so I will get a proper break then.

Has anyone else done this? Just managed without childcare when work was super quiet?

I've done fuck all at work for the past three weeks. Everyone is off from from work. My team lead, my manager, my managers manager. I just sent an email with some documents I made to 10 clients. Got 7 out of office messages. We are not allowed to publish anything from mid june-mid August due to summer holiday season cause 'nobody' is at work. I do whatever I can do without clients input and managers/team leads input, but it has been quite chill. I work a lot in the other months and we all know nothing happens in July so those of us working in July just do what we can and take it easy. Some jobs just are like this.

Why didn’t you book annual leave for when the children are off school, why wait until they’re back in school, especially as you have no childcare??

No I didn't miss that at all.

But you clearly missed the point.

She is being paid for a full day of work. But working for about 1 hour a day.

Taking the piss.

Well, that's nice for you, but if August is so quiet I don't understand why you don't take your annual leave then and spend it with them legit, instead of doing it on your employer's money.

i think it’s ok. But normally maybe work a few days and break some up with annual leave for days out, also play dates etc if you can even better for you.

i don’t know why you did not take your annual leave in the August holidays and not in September? . Is it because others are off and your not allowed.

you don’t need to entertain 8 and 10 all day so you can still work!

This is why employers are insisting people come back to the office full time - thanks a lot 🙄

It obviously depends on what the expectations are for your job. Is the extent of your job picking up calls / emails? Or is there an expectation that you’d be ‘getting on’ with stuff if you have time?

I say do it OP, well risk it, you seem confident it’ll be fine, and you know the situation better than any of us do. If it doesn’t work out as planned, then you just don’t do it again next year.

Any PPs telling you not to do it or berating you, are just jealous you’ve got this option IMO

The only unreasonable thing is saying you will get a break in September. Everyone knows you don’t get a break until your kids are grown up 😂

I’d be really disappointed if one of my team did this

I work in an industry where there are quieter months, and those are the times where we encourage catching up on training, reviewing documentation such as process maps, process notes and obviously annual leave. There’s never absolutely nothing to do, as whatever industry you’re in there’s always room to improve processes

To openly do that, then take time off when work picks back up is taking the piss - and no matter how much you think it’ll go unnoticed; it won’t

I am stunned that you aren't expected to:

• fill the time with training
• catch up on admin
• take the iniative to plan process improvements

I'm also stunned your employer will tolerate so much unproductive time. Ive worked in industries with an August lull and typically its been arranged with a rota to ensure skeleton staff for "manning the phones" but mandated leave for everyone else. Otherwise you have people taking leave at other times of year when they could be working.

Be careful op. Underemployed staff are always exposed.

a good business does not expect people to be operating at one hundred percent capacity every single week of the year

No, thats what annual leave is for, its not that you get 2 or 3 quiet months then another 6 weeks of leave plus bank hols on top

Why would people be jealous?

I have this kind of flexibility because I’m transparent about it. But OP is risking her job by doing it without that transparency. And worse than that, whenever people try crap like this and get caught it makes it less likely to be agreed for the people who are aboveboard.

Why is it boring for them? They are on holiday now with DH. I will be taking them for fun days out over the summer.

It takes less than 30 seconds to see if there has been any emails. What is wrong with having time off when they are not there? Is it a crime?

I’m splitting my time working from home over the summer too OP.
in fact this afternoon I worked from a soft play place whilst I took my child and 2 of their friends to it- there was a handful of us in the cafe and it was deathly quiet.
what does it matter where you are as long as the work gets done! Good luck!!

So you book your annual leave for September when your kids are back at school and work is getting busy so you can have a nice rest.

You intend to entertain your kids whilst "working" during August. Your kids dont get a holiday as you are working. Your employer doesn't get much work out of you because you are entertaining your kids.

Most parents would book time off to look after their children in the summer holiday. Just like your managers who have taken time off in August to (I assume) spend time with their kids on holiday.

Talk about taking the piss. If you were that confident it didnt matter that you were working and looking after your children at the same time you would tell your company, rather than hiding it from them

No such clause.

Really? I won an exceptional performance award a few months ago.

Ooo interesting. Would it be fraud in your industry if someone is getting all their work done? Is it considered fraud that they aren't where they stated they were going to be? could people work from coffee shops etc? I think you are totally right about the industry and it's so dependent on the role and type of contract.

I had a role in education (not school based) where there was a lot of inflexibility during terms time, and a lot of flexibility during holiday periods. It wasn't a traditional teaching role. The culture changed over the years and more inflexibility was introduced during the holiday periods which upset a lot of people who would have the sort of arrangement that OP is floating. I'm quite institutionalised to that industry so interested to see what other work cultures would expect.

Yes.

Great tips thank you!

I do no 5 already!

They obviously dont realise that you dont dedicate 100% of your work time to work and 100% of your child time to your children then do they.

Think what you could achieve if you were dedicated to both!

People are presumably jealous because a) OP probably earns more than them b) doesn’t have to be chained to her laptop all day with a boss breathing down her neck c) is saving hundreds in childcare. Thats why all the sneery comments about being a shit worker and shit parent.

If you're so confident that you're doing nothing wrong, why don't you tell your 2 managers your plans and ask them if it's ok to have an extra month of holiday with the odd look at your emails?